Obituary: Dannevirke WWII veteran an ordinary man who did extraordinary things

Johnny Bray was always content with his lot. Photo / Supplied

He was an ordinary man who did extraordinary things, says Joan MacIntyre of her father, Ernest John Bray (Johnny), who has died, aged 102.

A Second World War veteran, he was sent to Fiji for four months to acclimatise and later was sent to New Caledonia where he spent two years.

An injury while playing rugby kept him on light duties, Joan says. That meant kitchen duty - peeling potatoes or doing dishes.

'Johnny', who died on October 21, didn't talk much about the war when she was growing up, but she did manage to get a few things about his time in New Caledonia and put them in a book.

His family was living in Whangamōmona when he was born in 1919.

Johnny with Edna in 1944. Photo / Supplied

He was one of 10 children - five boys and five girls.

His father died when he was about five and his mother moved the family to Dannevirke.

She eventually remarried and had three more children.

Back then, it was the Great Depression and times were hard.

Joan says her father was still at school when he got a job doing milk deliveries, and when he finished school he got a similar job.

Then he joined his brothers doing odd jobs including scrub cutting, labouring or haymaking.

"Whatever was going," she says.

He loved to play the accordion. Photo / Supplied

Johnny returned from the war in September 1944 and married Edna Plowman a month later.

The couple had met at a dance before he left for overseas.

They were living at Pōrangahau for a while but eventually moved closed to Dannevirke.

Johnny began working at the gas works and then went sharemilking at Maharahara.

Joan says when he retired off the farm, he began working for the borough council.

Many of the friends he made while working there came to the funeral service to pay their respects, she says.

In many ways, Johnny led a simple life, but he was happy with his lot.

Nothing fazed him, Joan says.

"He was a gentle man. He was always good to us."

Joan says he spent a lot of time gardening and would often share the vegetables he grew with the community, or would help others with their gardens.

When he began to lose his eyesight due to macular degeneration, he moved into Eileen Mary Residential Care Centre.

He would often play the accordion to entertain the other residents, something his father had once played but had never taught him.

"He picked it up himself," Joan says.

"He played it right up until a couple of weeks before he died."

The service was held last week.